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“Here is a small fact: You are going to die”(Zusak 3). The Book Thief, a historical fiction book by Markus Zusak, is narrated by Death. The novel takes place during the 1930’s and 40’s in Nazi Germany and follows 9 year old Liesel Meminger, who death refers to as “The Book Thief.” After her father, mother, and then brother are killed, Liesel becomes an orphan and is taken in by Hans and Rosa Hubermann in Molching. Throughout the book, she meets many people including the Mayor’s wife, Isla Hermann, and Max Vandenburg, a Jew who is hiding from the Nazi’s in the Hubermann’s basement. Although Liesel’s life is filled with death and loss, she ends up surviving an air raid on her street and after the war, she is reunited with Max who survived the Nazi death camp. While the story is focused on Liesel, it’s told through the perspective of Death. Death, of course, is what takes your soul from your body and takes you to the afterlife. “It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you…” (Zusak 4). Liesel is just 9 years old at the beginning of the book. After losing her family she feels hopeless. But eventually she is somewhat happy with her new family and Max, who is hiding in their basement. She becomes intrigued by books and writing. One day, she steals and book from a book burning, which was a serious crime in Nazi Germany and she’s seen by the Mayor’s wife Isla Hermann. Isla invites Liesel to her library and that leads to Liesel becoming more obsessed with writing. She eventually comes to realize that along with the hope that the written word brings-the stories Max wrote for her and even her own writing-is also the source of her pain and suffering because of Hitler’s propaganda. This is one of the things that... ... middle of paper ... ... your beliefs, we go spend eternity in peace with our Creator or the unfortunate ones spend eternity with anger and fear in Hell. Others believe we fall into a deep pit of nothing, that our short time on Earth just ends in darkness. In times when death is the most certain option-like the Holocaust- the true colors of humans come out. Some people are bitter and cruel, like the Nazi’s and some are compassionate and loving like Max and the Hubermann’s. They allowed an orphaned little girl to stay with them and treated her just as her real family would. Even Death, the thing humans fear the most, sees the large scale of human cruelty and human compassion. And while humans fear so many things-whether it be spiders or heights or death-the truth of the matter is that humans are the worst thing to happen to humans. As death said, “I am haunted by the humans”(Zuask 550).
1.The Grave Digger’s Handbook: Represents the last time Liesel saw her mother and her brother. It is the first book Liesel steals and reads, and it helps her start reading.
In the following lines from Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief, Liesel has been in attendance of a bonfire in which the Hitler Youth was required to attend. The bonfire was meant for burning books, posters and other propaganda that the Jews had owned. During the clean-up of the bonfire, Liesel seized her moment to steal her second book.
Throughout time, children have read stories of brave knights, running into battle with their swords ready to defeat the invader. They have read tales of everyday girls turning into princesses by kissing a frog or wearing a glass slipper. Also, some of these stories contain accounts of historically poignant moments. For example, the novel The Book Thief written by Markus Zusak takes place during World War II. It gives a lasting impression on what this time was like for everyday people and the impacts the war had on them. The author does this through the many storytelling elements incorporated into the book. Also, Zusak displays how people respond to changes within their lives during these taxing times. For instance, the main character, Liesel
...internationally and has often been called ‘Harry Potter and the Holocaust’, a young girl’s difficult yet determined journey towards maturity. However, there are some who argue that a book so sad and sentimental is hardly a suitable read for teenagers. In Zusak’s own country, the book was published for a more mature audience and I think it does require a grown-up head to interpret the complicated emotions portrayed in here. Still, reading it can be a life-changing experience for this book comes with a message of hope. Liesel is the embodiment of that hope, a personification of love and generosity that even Death comes to love and respect. Read The Book Thief for it’s a lesson for life and food for thought for our generation. Read it for it shows one how to hope, and above all, read it for Death, the narrator with a heart, who confesses that he is haunted by humans.
It was on a train with Liesel’s mother and brother where they were travelling when death made his first appearance in the book thief’s life. He took the soul of her brother and only glanced at the girl truly, not taking real note of her as he did his job. She knew that her brother was dead at that point, but the shock wouldn’t truly take her until she snatched a book from where it had fallen near her brother’s hastily made grave. After he was buried, Liesel and her mother continued on their way, arriving at the town of Molching, where she met Hans and Rosa Hubermann. In the first few months that she had arrived, nightmares plagued her mind, haunting her with images of Werner, her brother, and his cold dead eyes. Hans is the one to comfort her, and because of this she grows to trust in him and truly view him as her father. She enjoys his company as well, for he can play the accordion and is always smiling and winking at her in a joyous way. He also begins to teach her how to read the book that she picked up on the day d...
The Book Thief occurs during the Second World War. Death, our designated narrator has never been busier. Somehow through all this chaos he has managed to meet her three times. Her of course, being Liesel Meminger, the infamous thief herself.
Death is a very well-known figure that is feared by many in all countries. He is suspected of being cruel, disturbing and all synonyms of horrifying. Death is inevitable and that is the most fearing aspect of his persona. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Death is made to seem or resemble humans. Effectively using the narration role, Death introduces a unique description and definition of colors in which he uses as a tool to effectively engage the readers to the events occurring throughout the book. He also demonstrates him personal and different experiences as well, mostly about soul gathering and the implications of WWII that have affected him. On the contrary to Death’s dead, appalling and scary nature that many interpret him to be during the book, Death shows many emotions and features to his personality that reasoning would declare otherwise. One of those feature would be the colors.
The fascination themes of desperation, unity, power of words, and hope are shown in various ways in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Firstly, the fascinating theme of desperation is shown in the text in several interesting ways.
Liesel experiences abandonment throughout her life, and the novel during a suppressed time in World War II Germany. Through her experiences Liesel’s learns to equate abandonment with love knowing that circumstance have forced her loved ones to leave her.
The heavily proclaimed novel “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak is a great story that can help you understand what living in Nazi Germany was like. Throughout the story, the main character, Liesel goes through many hardships to cope with a new life in a new town and to come to the recognition of what the Nazi party is. Liesel was given up for adoption after her mother gave her away to a new family, who seemed harsh at first, but ended up being the people who taught her all the things she needed to know. Life with the new family didn’t start off good, but the came to love them and her new friend, Rudy. As the book carried along, it was revealed that the Hubermanns were not Nazi supporters, and even took in a Jew and hid him in their basement later on in the book. Liesel became great friends with the Jew living in her basement, Max, who shared many similarities which helped form their relationship. Both of
Even though the style of writing is simple and direct, it does a good job conveying the different themes of the story, including the different conflicts between politics and religion, separation of families, death, and etc. The power of words is shown as soon as Liesel learns how to read. Her will for prosperity and curiosity becomes more powerful with every word she learns. She realizes that words, through cruel and wicked manners, can be impact people to force acts of brutality. During the burial of her baby brother, she finds her first book, the grave digger’s manual. Even though liesel couldn’t read at the moment, she knows the memories its words
The protagonist of The Book Thief is Liesel Meminger, a girl growing up in holocaust Germany. As the book begins Liesel is 9 years old, a girl given up by her mother to live with foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann in the German town of Molching. On the way to Molching Liesel’s brother Werner who was supposed to join her at the Hubermanns’ dies and Liesel is traumatized making the separation from her mother, her only remaining family much more painful. Thankfully the blow is softened by the love extended to her from her foster-father. Hans compared to Rosa with her gruff, loud love is just the solace Liesel needs. He is gentle and kind, patient enough to teach Liesel how to read, starting with a book she picked up at the graveyard where her brother was buried. With his aid Liesel slowly becomes more comfortable in her new life, venturing out in the neighborhood at a soccer match she befriends Rudy Steiner, a boy who falls in love with her. Over that summer they have many adventures together and the shadow of war is left in the joy of childhood freedom. A shadow, warded off for long finally falls upon Liese...
During Markus Zusak’s book we observe the beauty of humans at many times. One of the most beautiful things a human does is when Max, the jew the Hubermanns are hiding from the nazis, gives Liesel a book that he made himself. But he says that “Now I think we are friends, this girl and me. On her birthday it was she who gave a gift to me”(Zusak 235). Max made this book for leisel by taking paint from the basement and painting over pages in Mein Kampf. He lets the pages dry and then he writes a story on them. He makes this book for Liesel because he can’t afford to buy one, and even if he could he can’t leave the house. But when he gives Liesel the book we also examine humans doing something so unbelievably nice. Liesel accepts max as a friend. Which in the long run will help Max out a lot, because he is locked in the basement and he can’t even go up stairs during the day. So someone who is there to talk to him, and someone for him to talk to will help him out. Throughout this book we watch their friendship grow. Liesel feels bad for Max because he is stuck in the basement so on a regular basis she will tell Max what the weather is like...
I read the “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak, in which a little girl is thrown into an unknown world without her mother or brother. The main character of the book, Liesel, becomes a foster child in Germany during the 1940s. The book is over a span of years and we grow with Liesel. I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone. It is set during the Holocaust, but it is still a coming of age book. I liked this book because the writer managed to write a book about a girl growing up and Nazi Germany. Neither one took away from each other and it all flowed very nicely.
Many of us have heard stories about the Holocaust, but did you know that over 11 million people died? Death was a very important yet regular aspect of Nazi Germany, and The Book Thief did a great job describing this destruction. In this novel we are guided through a whirlwind of romances, like Rudy and Liesel’s long lived love for each other, and Rosa and Hans’ hidden desire, but equally we are faced with heartbreaks, and even more often, death. The narrator uses many literary devices to describe the process of death, and the fact that even if we foresee it, it never comes easily.